A big benefit is writing the app once and it working everywhere. If it only works on Android, people will just default to the tools tailored to that platform anyway.
Comment on Apple Wants To Kill PWAs
parens@programming.dev 11 months agoWhy would they be dead on Android?
Vincent@feddit.nl 11 months ago
SmartmanApps@programming.dev 11 months ago
But it wouldn’t only work on Android. It would also work on Windows and Unix and any other niche operating system that can run a browser (my Blu-ray recorder has a browser in it). There’s a whole world outside Apple/Android. This message brought to you by a browser running on Windows…
Vincent@feddit.nl 11 months ago
That’s theoretically true, but in practice, the desktop experience (screen size, interaction model, etc.) is sufficiently different that adapting it to mobile is not that different from building a separate app.
SmartmanApps@programming.dev 11 months ago
It’s not at all like building a separate app. All the back-end code is identical - all you have to do is make the mobile version not take up as much screen-space, and that’s not much work. e.g. on desktop I use icon and text, but on mobile icon only.
Carighan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And since Apple dictates what everyone else does
Quoting myself again for clarity.
parens@programming.dev 11 months ago
Hmm… OK. Not sure you’re right in this instance. PWAs have been shit on iPhones for ages due to everything being forced to use Safari on that platform. Probably less people use PWAs on iPhone than on Android. Most people probably didn’t even know of PWAs (as seen right in this comment section in a tech community).
Matty_r@programming.dev 11 months ago
Like it or not, Apple is the trend setter. Everybody feels like they need to do what Apple does. So given that, Apple kills PWAs, everyone else will surely follow.
That’s normally how it goes anyway.
SmartmanApps@programming.dev 11 months ago
Look for every time Apple has said “reimagined” and you’ll find a feature that Android had 5 years earlier.
Phanatik@kbin.social 11 months ago
I don't think that's true. Android has had more features than Apple for over a decade. People forget that iPhones didn't used to have a proper file manager and the only way to put songs on them was through iTunes. iOS has been trailing behind Android in that respect while maintaining their walled garden.
SmartmanApps@programming.dev 11 months ago
People also forget that smartphones existed before iPhones and MP3 players existed before iPods.
lengau@midwest.social 11 months ago
That’s the point though. Android has all these features, but they only suddenly become “real” to the general public when Apple makes their version of it too.
I was using Google Wallet for NFC transactions years before Apple made the same available, but as soon as they did everyone started asking if I liked the new iPhone when I paid with it.
Phanatik@kbin.social 11 months ago
The comment I replied to suggested the opposite, that whatever decisions Apple makes, Android follows behind which isn't the case in reality.
I understand your point though. It's weird that people who use iPhones have this mentality that iPhones are at the forefront of innovation. I know some people who are aware that Apple is behind but the phone does what they require of it so they have no need to ask more.
SmartmanApps@programming.dev 11 months ago
That doesn’t make them trend-setters though - that just makes them big spenders on marketing. i.e. Android wasn’t following what Apple did - they’d already been doing it first!
lengau@midwest.social 11 months ago
Same reason NFC payments on Android were super niche for years before Apple finally implemented it. Or why so many apps don’t use Android features that would improve them because iOS doesn’t offer that feature. For whatever reason, Apple has an outsized mind share and are able to use that to hold back competing platforms because people don’t want the iPhone version of their apps to be less capable.
Of course, the biggest loser in all this isn’t Android. It’s smaller platforms that want to compete with both Android and iOS.
Miaou@jlai.lu 11 months ago
I think this has to do with web/mobile dev and higher management usually being apple users
elbarto777@lemmy.world 11 months ago
But then there are other features on Android that are thriving in spite of Apple not supporting them, like app sideloading.
parens@programming.dev 11 months ago
I’m very interested in why you think that. Do you have numbers?
The concept of a mobile wallet was invented in Kenya in 2007 with no input from Apple. That then spread to East Asia where in China, not NFC payments but QR-code payments have been a thing since 2011 and they have barely caught on in the West. There are massive developments and usage of different technologies happening outside of Western countries of which the majority are now on Android simply due to price.
Which features are these?
Are you an Android user? And which continent are you on? I’m guessing your views are very much centered around a personal experience in a single country or even region, but I may be wrong.